Robert Houston Curry

Robert Houston Curry
Louisiana State Representative for Bossier Parish
In office 1888–1892
Preceded by	Henry Warren Ogden
Succeeded by	William Benton Boggs
Personal details
Born	November 26, 1842 Winnsboro Fairfield County South Carolina, USA
Died	June 24, 1892 (aged 49) Rocky Mount Community in Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Resting place	Rocky Mount Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	(1) Margaret Aiken Martin Curry (died 1881) (2) Mollie Burdett Banks Gray (married 1889-1892, his death)
Children	From first marriage: Mary Caroline Curry Bligh Margaret Eugenia Curry Wooley From second marriage: Glenn H. Curry Annie Belle Curry Boggs Robert H. "Bob" Curry
Parents	Robert Pearson and Caroline Mary Parr Curry
Residence	Rocky Mount Community
Occupation	Farmer
Religion	Presbyterian Church
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Service/branch	Confederate States Army
Battles/wars	American Civil War Second Battle of Manassas

Though no photo is available of Robert Houston Curry, his son, Robert H. "Bob" Curry (born c. 1892 - date of death missing) is shown here in the 1970 yearbook The Lagniappe of Louisiana Tech University through Curry's role as a member and former president of the Louisiana State Board of Education for the 4th congressional district.

Robert Houston Curry (November 26, 1842 – June 24, 1892) was a Democrat who served a single term from 1888 to 1892 in the Louisiana House of Representatives for his adopted Bossier Parish in northwestern Louisiana.^[1]

Background

Born near Winnsboro in Fairfield County in north central South Carolina, Curry was the younger of two sons of Robert Pearson Curry (1800-1885) and the former Caroline May Parr (1817-1849). His mother died when he was six years of age. He subsequently acquired four half-brothers from his father's second marriage to the former Eliza Harper (1822-1907). Curry was himself twice married as well. From his first union with the former Margaret Aiken Martin Bell (1833-1881), a widow and also a native of Fairfield County, South Carolina who was nine years his senior, he had two daughters who like their father died early in life, Mary Caroline Curry Bligh (1867-1896) and Margaret Eugenia Curry Wooley (1871-1895).^[2]

After Margaret's death, he wed Mollie Burdett Banks (1862-1958), a native of Tulip in Dallas County, Arkansas, who was twenty years his junior.^[2] Mollie was a great-great-grand-niece of George Washington.^[3] Mollie and Robert Curry were married by her father, the Reverend Alexander Robinson Banks (1808-1890), a Presbyterian minister originally from York, South Carolina, who later lived near El Dorado, Arkansas, before moving to the Rocky Mount Community in Bossier Parish, where he was a long-term pastor.^[4] Mollie's mother, the former Mary Fitzhugh (1826-1900), was like Robert Curry's mother a Virginia native.^[5][2]

Career

On August 31, 1861, at the age of eighteen, Curry enlisted in the Confederate Army in Alston, South Carolina. A year later, he was shot in the ankle in the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) in Virginia. The wound plagued him for the remainder of his life. He was captured at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864, subsequently turned over to a Confederate agent for exchange, and paroled at the Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 19, 1865, ten days after General Robert E. Lee's surrender to U.S. Grant.^[5]

A farmer, Curry was affiliated with the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. He was a Presbyterian and a member of the Knights of Pythias. He died at the age of forty-nine in the Rocky Mount Community a few weeks after the end of his legislative term. He is interred at the Rocky Mount Cemetery.^[6]

Legacy

In 1908, Mollie Banks Curry married James Samuel Gray (1859-1928), a native of Atlanta, Georgia.^[7] "Miss Mollie," as she was known, was living in Plain Dealing in northern Bossier Parish when on March 19, 1931, shortly before her sixty-ninth birthday, she filed an application for a Confederate widows pension in Bossier Parish.^[5]

Mollie subsequently moved to Shreveport, where she resided for a year with her daughter, then returned to Plain Dealing, and finally moved again to Shreveport to reside the last year of her life with a son. When she died in the spring of 1958, her surviving children were listed as Annie Belle Curry Boggs, wife of W. B. Boggs, Jr.; Robert H. "Bob" Curry,^[8] a member of the elected Louisiana State Board of Education for Louisiana's 4th congressional district^[3]and past president of the Norwella Council of the Boy Scouts of America,^[9] and Glenn H. Curry (1889-1958) of Texarkana, Texas,^[3] who died five months after his mother's passing and is interred at Hillcrest Cemetery in Texarkana.^[10] Mollie Curry Gray is interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.^[5]

Robert Houston Curry was succeeded in the legislature in 1892 by William Benton Boggs,^[1] whose son married Mollie's daughter.^[5]

References

1. "Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2012: Bossier Parish" (PDF). legis.state.la.us. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
2. "Robert Houston Curry". findagrave.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
3. "Oldest Descendant Of First President Succumbs At 93". Monroe, Louisiana: The Monroe News-Star. May 19, 1958. p. 7. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
4. "Rev. Alexander Robinson Banks". findagrave.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
5. "Mollie Burdett Banks Curry Gray". findagrave.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
6. "Curry, Robert H.". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
7. "James Samuel Gray". findagrave.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
8. It is unclear if Robert H. "Bob" Curry is Robert Houston Curry, Jr.; he did not use the "Junior", as his father died when he was too young to remember him.
9. "Scouts and Fathers to Meet at Annual Banquet Tonight". Ruston Daily Leader. March 9, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
10. "Glenn H. Curry". findagrave.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.